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A few words regarding D&D, and it's evolution, and learning from other system (jeferson.me)
submitted 3 weeks ago by Shin@piefed.social to c/rpg@ttrpg.network
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I did write in my blog regarding D&D, it's evolution and changes done, and what I think could improve the game. And learnings from other games. Maybe this is a good read for ya'll.

Feedbacks, discussion and other topics related are welcome.
Thanks in advance for the reading.

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[–] Aielman15@lemmy.world 2 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago) (3 children)

Beautifully written. There's a treasure trove of great concepts and mechanics that other systems have, which people would absolutely love if they were willing to try them over DnD. It's not just about playing something "better", it's playing something different.

I've been recently pushing my friends to move onto other systems. One of them is interested in running Fabula Ultima, for example, because he really likes the Fabula Points system (the ability for players to shape the narrative by spending points obtained during roleplay).

Me, I'd love to run Shadowdark, but only two of us like it, so that's not gonna happen anytime soon :(

Btw, there's a typo in your article:

Let me be clear, I don’t want GURPS levels of crunch. I don’t want to calculate the an integral of the area of my bagpack to know if my encumbrance to see if I can carry an extra torch.

[–] HubertManne@piefed.social 2 points 3 weeks ago

I had a guy run a fantasy game using the champions online hardback rules in the 90's. That was very versatile with one book and not so nitty gritty.

[–] Shin@piefed.social 1 points 3 weeks ago

Ohhh shoot. I’ll leave the typo. Gives character to the text :P

[–] Shin@piefed.social 0 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

I wish I could make my players to go with Fabula Última!

But for then, it’s DnD, luckily for me I was able to make then use my “custom rules” that already adds some of the Fabula Ultima details on the game. Yet far from the main concepts

[–] Aielman15@lemmy.world 1 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago)

I've run customized DnD for a few years. It can be a lot of fun if you're the type of person who enjoys creating and balancing mods for their games. Eventually, I got bored of the limitations of the system, and 5.5e killed my interest altogether.
After a few attempts at changing game system, I simply quit the campaign and told my group why.

Sometimes people just need a gentle push. I tried "Let's play something else! No? Okay, DnD it is" for years and it didn't work, so I told them, without half measures, I would not play DnD anymore.
They still play DnD with other friends of theirs, but now they are willing to make an honest attempt at trying other stuff, too.

[–] jjjalljs@ttrpg.network 1 points 3 weeks ago

A good post.

I personally find DND unsatisfying for many reasons (little to no degree of success, static magic system that encourages hoarding, the primary defense is all or nothing avoidance, very coarse progression, some character concepts are simply not representable, etc)

But what is even more annoying than that is when players respond with "but you can just change the rules!". I know! That's true of any pen and paper game! It's not some unique property of DND. But sometimes I don't want to do the work of designing a system, and I almost never want to play some stranger's pre-alpha homebrew.

[–] INeedMana@piefed.zip 1 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago) (2 children)

Ryuutama, for example, is literally called “the Japanese Hayao Miyazaki RPG.” It’s about travel, exploration, and gentle adventure. The mechanics reinforce that with weather systems, caravan management, and a focus on journey over destination.

(...)

SRS (Standard RPG System) games in Japan take this even further. Instead of trying to model physics, they model drama. You don’t have “climbing skill”, you have I’m the agile thief with a heart of gold as a mechanical tag that pays off when it’s relevant.

At this point I'd like to see someone walk us through a selected list of Japanese systems

btw
what's up with those "Important messages"?

[–] Shin@piefed.social 1 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

Regarding jRPG, I managed to translate a few already, nothing professional, and my Japanese isn’t yet there (something close to an A2 hare), but the focus on the drama before the mechanics creates some difernete mind model, you focus on “what you do” instead of which “spell you have”

[–] INeedMana@piefed.zip 0 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

Yes, I get it. For that I loved playing FitD. Our table does not like playbooks/classes and I like pool-less rolls with different dice but the rest was working really well.
The second example you gave reminds me of how Neon City Overdrive (I think it's reskinned City of Mist?) and Technoir work

So clearly those ideas have been seeping through to western systems too. But maybe, since you've apparently found the source of this so-called "narrative" approach, in your explorations you have found some other interesting ideas? I don't mean full-blown translations, rather a walkthrough of sorts

[–] Shin@piefed.social 2 points 3 weeks ago

That a good point! I need to organize a post about it.

(He I go again on the hyper focus train! Tchooo tchoooo!!!)

[–] Shin@piefed.social 1 points 3 weeks ago

Ohhh you have used a “reader mode” or something similar. This is invisible ink for the crawlers that ignore my “do not scrape this page” and still crawl in it.

Im still figuring out a better way to make the invisible ink not visible on the reader mode, but yet exists for the crawler.

sorry for that.